Summary: What if when Dawn was created she received the wrong memories. What if she received the memories of someone from our world. Someone who had knowledge of the TV show. Could she change how everything went? Could she give Buffy a happily ever after?

Pairings: This will be updated when Pairings are finalized. I have an idea who I want to pair both Buffy and Dawn with. But I need to see if I can make them work before I announce them.

Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and it's assorted Characters, Locations, etc.) are owned by Joss Whedon. The Character of Tom is based upon myself and is the only thing in this story that I own.

Author's Note: Thanks goes out to my Beta, DuffJessica

Chapter 1: Real Me Pt 1

Beams of sunlight shining on Tom's face, forced him awake. 'Ah what a beautiful morning' he thought, as he looked out the window. Pushing himself up onto the headboard of the bed, he stretched out his arms wide and gave out a haphazard yawn. It sounded strangely high-pitched to him for some reason, but he didn't give it much thought.

After a few minutes of lying awake in bed, Tom found the motivation deep within to finally get up, and so he did. Pushing the covers off and swiveling his feet and legs around to the side of the bed, he lunged forward from his crouched position and made contact with the floor.

Instantly, something felt off to Tom. He couldn't exactly pinpoint it at first, but there was something definitely going on. Was he sick? His body certainly felt strange, but his eyes were too tired to be able to take a look for himself. After several minutes of pure confusion, Tom mustered the ability to walk and made his way out of the bedroom down a familiar but yet unfamiliar hall to the bathroom. Flipping on the light switch and clearing the water from his eyes, he glanced up into the mirror in front of him. Then, he saw it.

Standing in front of him was a fourteen year old girl. She had long, flowing brown hair; soft, hairless skin; and a perky, prominent chest. She stared motionless in front of him, seemingly without concern for his presence. And he let out a high pitched scream and the girl in the mirror screamed as well.

Tom continued staring at this girl until finally something clicked in his brain. This is a mirror, he realized. That's when it dawned on him to look down.

Doing so, his feelings turned to horror. He saw his strange body shape ... his diminished stature ... and finally his boobs.

'No wait it can't be!' Tom screamed in his head.

Tom leaned in closer towards the mirror, and the girl did the same. He stuck his tongue out, and so did she. Then finally, he slapped himself across his face, hard, and once again the girl copied his exact movements. Leaving a big red hand mark across her face, 'No, no, I must still be dreaming' he thought to himself, and hoped at the same time.

He felt his new hair. It was luscious and seemingly never-ending. Following his locks downward, he felt his tight waist and his broad hips. He then reached his legs, which were completely devoid of hair. Finally, he looked back into the mirror with the realization that he was looking upon himself.

He then remembered the boobs as he looked down at the shirt. Did he really want to see what might be under there? He pulled at the neck of the shirt and looked down underneath the fabric and stared at a pair of breasts that were hanging from his chest just as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted.

Minutes later, after he had fainted from the sudden shock of learning he was now a girl, Tom slowly began to wake up. He looked into the mirror and took a long hard look at the reflection. She looked familiar to him. Then his eyes went wide as he finally recognized the reflection. 'I'm Michelle Trachtenberg,' he thought. 'Somehow I've switched bodies with Michelle Trachtenberg!'

Tom looked down at his shirt again and shook his head. How could this sort of thing even remotely happen? He looked at the mirror again and moved his hand in front of his face and watched her move hers as well. 'This is just weird,' he thought. He slowly wandered out of the bathroom and looked around.

Now that the fog had lifted he instantly recognized the hallway and where he had seen it before. He had been watching his copy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD the other night and the hall he stood in was an exact replica of the one from the show. He returned to the room he had woken in and looked around.

On the nightstand next to the bed he noticed a framed photo. He bent down and picked it up as he stared at it. He recognized the faces that looked back at him; Sarah Michelle Gellar, Michelle Trachtenberg and Kristine Sutherland or as they were known on the TV show; Buffy, Dawn and Joyce. He looked around the room and it looked like the room Dawn had used for her bedroom.

And then a thought occurs to him, if he was actually now Dawn, he would be between fourteen and sixteen years old. 'Oh my, God', he thought. 'Not only am I a girl, I'm a girl that is going through puberty.'

That meant that he was going to have to deal with things that a girl would. And the thought terrified him. He started pacing the room trying to think of what to do. He couldn't stay in the room all the time till whatever happened was reversed. But he also couldn't even pretend to be Dawn. He didn't know enough about her life to even be passably accurate at it. He knew only two of Dawn's friends, Lisa and Janice. It was possible that they were the only friends Dawn had, but there was no way to be sure.

Tom didn't know anything about Dawn's school hardly at all. Most of her school life had not even been seen on the show. This was just a lot to take in for someone who just a day before had been a thirty-four year old man. Suddenly there was a knock on Dawn's bedroom door.

"Dawn, are you dressed?" a voice asked from the other side of the door. "Mom wants me to take you shopping for school. You need to be ready to leave when Giles gets here or I'm leaving without you."

Tom tried to grasp with the fact that the voice, that he was sure was Sarah Michelle Gellar's or rather Buffy's, had called him Dawn. He looked at the picture on the nightstand again and for the second time that morning his eyes rolled backward into his head as he fainted.

Minutes passed and Tom slowly regained consciousness, as he opened his eyes he looked up into two faces that were hovering above his. "Dawn, are you alright?" asked Joyce Summers as she looked at Tom. He was sure he could hear concern in her voice.

"I … I'm not sure," said Tom. He noted how his voice sounded to his ears. He was definitely a soprano now, or was that alto? He wasn't sure.

"Should we take her to the hospital?" asked Buffy.

"No," said Tom as he looked up at Buffy and Joyce as he slowly began to sit up. "I'm okay."

Buffy and Joyce gave Tom a once over to see if that were indeed true. "Okay," they said together as Tom stood up.

"I probably should get dressed. Don't want Buffy to be late now do we?" asked Tom as both Joyce and Buffy shook their heads and left the room.

There was a small problem however, what was he going to wear? And how was he going to put on a bra?

Tom gulped, 'this is gonna be one heck of a challenge,' he thought to himself. He looked through the drawers of the dresser but only saw girly clothes: skirts, tights, leggings, and of course bras and panties. He decide on a pair of jeans and t-shirt.

The hardest part was getting the bra on. He had find a white one that hooks in the front, which made it easier to put on me. Still it took him a minute or two to get the cups adjusted comfortably.

Once fully dressed he headed downstairs. He found Buffy in the kitchen alone eating a bowl of cereal.

"Mom has already gone into work," Buffy said as she looked at Tom.

Tom moved to the counter and thought about making himself a bowl of cereal as he grabbed the box.

"We're out of milk," Buffy told him.

"We're out of milk?" asked Tom, confused. Why was that so familiar? Then it dawned on him, that in the episode 'Real Me' they were making breakfast and Dawn had gotten the last of the milk, leaving Buffy with a bowl of cereal and no milk.

Tom wondered how he was going to broach the subject with Buffy about his not being Dawn in her body. He knew Buffy had taken it bad when the monk told her that she had not been real. He so did not want a repeat of that. But he wasn't sure how to do it without just blurting it out and dealing with the aftermath.

Tom sighed and shook his head as he pushed back the box of cereal and turned toward Buffy. It would have been better to not blurt it out but what else was he going to do. He would need her help. Hmm maybe if he told her something that Dawn wouldn't know.

"The spring after you moved to Sunnydale. You died …" started Tom.

"What is this about?" asked Buffy. She looked at Tom. "You know I died, remember you followed me and the Anointed One into the Master's cave. You pulled me out of the water and Xander revived me."

"I know, Buffy. What I shouldn't know is this. After you came back from the summer with your dad you had to go rescue Giles, Willow, Cordelia and Ms. Calendar you ground the Master's bones to dust with a sledgehammer," said Tom as he watched Buffy's face.

"Who told you?" asked Buffy with confusion. Could it have been Cordelia? She doubted Xander, Willow or Giles would have told Dawn.

"No one," said Dawn. "Buffy this will be hard to believe. That's why I started with something Dawn shouldn't know. My name is Thomas Andrews. I was born in 1972 in Missouri. And I'm from another dimension. A dimension where your world is one of fiction in mine."

Buffy looked at Dawn unsure what to say. She just stared at him wondering what was going on here, unable to put her thoughts to words. Finally she said. "How … how do you know that?"

"Because in my world your life since you moved to Sunnydale is one of fiction. " Tom said as he searched his brain trying to find another example. "When you ran away to L.A. after sending Angel to hell. What Dawn wouldn't know is that you ran into Lily, whom you knew as Chanterelle from the vampire cult. She got kidnapped by this demon and taken to a hell dimension. You rescued her and she now goes by Anne after you got her a job at the diner you had been working at the whole summer."

Buffy looked at Dawn as she took a step back from her. There was no way Dawn could have known that either. It's not possible is it? Buffy thought. How could Dawn have some guy inside her head?

"You're freaking out, aren't you?" Tom asked.

Buffy shot both hands out and grabbed Tom—hard—pinning his arms to his sides. Tom struggled as Buffy got in his face. "Who are you?"

"I told you," said Tom. "I'm trapped in Dawn's body. Please you have to believe me. We need to find out how to fix this."

"Where is my sister?" asked Buffy as she slammed Tom back against the wall.

"Let me go, Buffy!" said Tom. "I don't know where your Dawn is."

'Wait a minute what am I doing?' Buffy thought. 'This could be simply a case of Dawn trying to get my attention. She could have read my diary. But why do that? Why go to such elaborate ends for a practical joke? I guess I could take her to Giles and get his opinion on the matter. If he thinks she's doing this just to get attention then I'll talk to mom and see about getting her an appointment with a shrink.'

"Okay," said Buffy as she looked at the clock. Giles would be there in five minutes.

There was a knock on the front door as Buffy and Tom walked into the foyer. Tom stayed back as Buffy opened the door and let Giles into the house. "Buffy," said Giles.

"We have to talk," said Buffy as she motioned Giles into the living room.

"About?" asked Giles as he looked at his Slayer, confusion etched on his face.

"Dawn," said Buffy as she looked toward Tom. "Or should I say Tom?"

"What?" Giles asked.

Tom sighed. "My name is Thomas Andrews and I am trapped inside Dawn's body."

Giles looked at Buffy questioningly.

"I … I don't know, Giles. She fainted this morning. And then after getting dressed she told me the same thing. Even backed it up examples of things she would not know," Buffy explained.

"I am from another reality where your lives are one of fiction. In my reality I have seen all seven seasons of the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Dawn said as she tried to explain yet again.

"Short of her reading my diary, Giles. Or you, Willow and Xander telling her the stuff with the Master. There is no way she could know," said Buffy as she briefly looked over at Tom who was sitting across from them. "There is stuff I haven't told anyone that she knew. Remember when you, Cordelia, Willow and Ms. Calendar were captured to resurrect the Master." Giles nodded. "I never said anything to Mom or Dawn about that even when they found out I was the Slayer. But Dawn knows now, and it's like how. The only explanation is that she is telling the truth or one of you told or she read my diary."

"I didn't read your diary," said Tom.

Giles sighed. "And I am fairly certain I didn't tell her of that particular instance. And unless I am mistaken neither would Willow or Xander." He looked at Dawn giving her a once over. "So the question is how did this happen if it is not …"

"What if I can prove it to you?" asked Tom. "What if I know what is going to happen today?"

Giles and Buffy looked at each other still quite skeptical that this wasn't a ploy to get attention. "Okay," Giles said. "Tell us what happens today."

"Giles, you will be taking us to the Magic Box…" said Tom as he looked at Buffy and Giles.

"We know that," said Buffy, irritably.

"What you don't know is this. The owner is dead. Killed by vampires. The vampires are minions of Harmony," said Tom as he continued.

"Harmony?" Giles asked trying to remember where he had heard that name before.

"Harmony Kendall," said Tom as he smiled at Giles. "She went to school with Buffy, Willow and Xander. She was a Cordette. She was turned at Buffy's Graduation. She now has minions."

At this Buffy began laughing, hysterically. "Harmony has minions?"

Tom laughed with Buffy. What her Swiss cheese brain told her was that Harmony was not a leader, she was a follower. And having minions did not work out for her very well. "Yeah," she said. "Harmony has minions. They killed the owner. Stole one of the books on your list and a unicorn statue."

"Harmony has minions," Buffy said trying to bring herself back under control.

Giles nodded as he thought about it. If Dawn was telling the truth then this would change everything. Yet it could be a plea for attention from Buffy. He knew that Buffy had been kind of been absent from Dawn's life because she was the Slayer. There was only one way to find out though. Go to the magic shop as planned and see if the owner was dead. If he was then Dawn was telling truth. If he was alive then he would sit the sisters down and talk to them.